During the 1980 presidential election season, many Americans tuned in to ABC’s Nightline, where host Ted Koppel began each night’s program announcing “Day ____” of the Iranian hostage crisis. America was “held hostage.” On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian “students” seized the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 Americans hostage until Jan. 20, 1981, inauguration day for the new American president Ronald Reagan. ABC, CBS, and NBC frequently led off their 6 p.m. news programs with updates on the hostage crisis. The Iranians held those Americans as hostages for 444 days, despite a feeble and unsuccessful attempt by the Carter administration to rescue them. The hostage crisis was one of several reasons why Ronald Reagan, who was not the media’s favorite candidate, won a landslide victory over President Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, at least 120 hostages remain in Hamas captivity, including…
